Ed-Tech Crusaders Seek D.C. Bucks

Fifth-graders might be more interested in learning history if they could, say, participate in a virtual constitutional convention and chat with big brains like Ben Franklin and John Adams.

That's just one of the many applications that are possible with a greater investment in research and development of educational technology.

The mission of the Digital Promise project is to create an educational trust fund that will support the development of these new models and applications for all levels of education.

The group, led by former NBC News president Larry Grossman and former FCC chairman Newt Minow, calls for the creation of the Digital Opportunity Investment Trust, which would be financed by revenue from the auction of publicly owned airwaves, an amount estimated at over $20 billion.

"It would do for technology and learning what NSF has done for science or the NIH has done for health or DARPA has done for defense," said Anne Murphy, project director for Digital Promise. "We would not have the Internet if NSF had not funded the guys in the lab to look at these questions."

DO IT would be used for grants to fund the development of new learning simulations and models to make the best use of the technology pipes going into schools. It would also pay for the digitizing of all materials in the country's museums, libraries and universities, and would make these resources more available to the general public.

In addition, grants would be awarded for workforce development, adult learning and teacher training. Programs that could be customized to individual learners would also be supported.

"The payoffs are so broad for society," said Henry Kelly, president of the Federation of American Scientists, which supports the project. "We have the computers, we have the connectivity. What we are not investing in is the content. That's going to require sustained investment."

The idea has support from members of both parties, Grossman said, and legislation was introduced in both the Senate and House in June to create the fund. Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) are sponsoring the Digital Opportunity Investment Trust Act, which would provide 50 percent of the revenues from the spectrum auctions to support the DO IT fund. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) introduced a similar bill in the House.

The auctions are for airwaves that are broken up into bands for different uses such as telecommunications, television and military applications. Spectrum auctions are currently scheduled to continue through 2007.

Grossman said hearings about the bills will likely be held this fall. He hopes Congress will reintroduce the bills sometime in February.

Even with issues like homeland security and the sluggish economy garnering most of government's attention these days, the Digital Promise leaders believe that DO IT is possible.

"Huge education initiatives have been made in times of crisis in each century," Grossman said. "We have another opportunity to do that now."

In fact, the DO IT legislation is based on another education initiative from the 19th century that was passed while the nation was in the midst of the Civil War. The Land-Grant Colleges Act of 1862 mandated that money from the sale of public land be used to establish land-grant colleges and universities, which made higher education possible for more than just the elite class.

"We're saying that the air -- the spectrum -- is an equivalent (resource) to the land," Murphy said.

Other educational initiatives like the G.I. Bill during World War II expanded opportunities for those who fought in the war.

"In plain English, it makes a hell of a lot of sense," said Peter Magrath, president of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC), which supports the program.

"It's a natural alliance because their ideology is public access and public opportunity," Magrath said. "It's intended to serve a larger spectrum of the population, and that's exactly what we're all about."

Instead of funneling the money generated from the sale of the airwaves into the general coffers, Magrath said, the revenues should be "used for some purposes that are educationally and culturally renewing."